this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/

Exactly what meals on wheels is for, but it needs more funding, to be sure.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

"Only the fittest survive" capitalism is out-of-control. Maybe we just make the meals stationary instead of cruelly forcing the elderly to chase them down?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's great that someone is trying to help the elderly. The challenge with charity is that it's charity. If meals on wheels blinked out of existence tomorrow, no one has the right to expect a meal the day after. It would just suck more for a bunch of people. I think we need commitment to new human rights: among other things, everyone should have enough food. That's the standard. If they don't have enough food, we and that person should expect that it's addressed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Agreed, of course. Was just pointing out that such a thing did exist. Charities are not the most effective way to handle such issues, absolutely.

Charities absolutely rely on things like public relations and advertising campaigns to raise awareness that they exist and/or need funding. It leaves everyone at the mercy of which charity is "most popular" and if yours isn't very popular, you could see it disappear. It also means a significant portion of the budget is spent on things that don't actually address the real problem, which is hunger.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah! Like I'm glad that Charity Navigator exists because we need it in the world we live in, but people shouldn't have to do a lot of research to determine if their donation is mostly going to administrative costs.